Giuliana Rancic Chats With GofG: Whoopi Goldberg Is A Bully, Celebs Need To Lighten Up

by SUSANNAH LONG · April 7, 2010

[Photo by Patrick McMullan] Giuliana Rancic's been busy. The E! presenter and E! News co-host is prepping for the second season of her reality show, Giuliana and Bill. She talked to us about her battle royale with Whoopi Goldberg, why she thinks celebs can't complain, and how she feels about La Snooki.-

Surrounded by the blue-bewigged waitresses and bright blue cocktails at TRIA's blue light beauty line launch, we sat down with Giuliana to ask about show biz and her very public marriage. Also on the table: Whoopi's recent smack-talk on The View about Giuliana's struggles with infertility. Whoopi blames it all on Giuliana's weight, or lack thereof.

We'll admit we had some trepidation about Giuliana. She's married to Bill Rancic, the first season winner of The Apprentice, whose bad side we would never want to get on. Also, one of our more lovable friends exclaimed, "No! Bring Joan Rivers back to the red carpet!" when we revealed our interview plans for the evening. Once we saw Giuliana's supernatural steadiness on her six-inch Brian Atwoods, our fear only increased, and we began downing cerulean mojitos like crazy. But Giuliana, who looked lovely (and, thank god, was dressed in fuchsia rather than blue), was down-to-earth and refreshingly realistic about the reality show/presenter life . . .

I’ve gotta ask about Whoopi Goldberg.

Ooh yes.

How’s that going?

Good, uh, nonexistent! No, it’s fine. I mean, it’s really hard when you have seven minutes on The View with all those women and then a man. You can’t get a word in!

And they’re interested in dissecting exactly what you’re doing with your life.

Exactly. And the thing is, when that question about weight came up, we were getting a wrap! So I knew I couldn’t get into the whole medical history and what had happened. But the truth is, I told them I had gained the weight and I still didn’t get pregnant. And then we tried again, and I gained – I’ve gained a little more, like seven or eight pounds, but it’s like, it doesn’t mean I’m just going to get pregnant! If it were only so easy, then one in eight women wouldn’t be infertile.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZeYfV5pdEc&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Bill and Giuliana's recent appearance on the view. Alas, ABC has cut off Whoopi's theory, but you can see the former Ghost psychic making side-eyes at the camera the whole time.

And then she brought it up the next day!

That’s what I didn’t like. I wasn’t there to defend myself. I mean, Bill and I went on The View to talk about something personal, and the only reason we did it is to give a voice to all these other people who are going through it, and to let them know that other people in Hollywood are going through it. It makes them feel more normal. We were happy to do it, but then to feel a little attacked and asked about my weight and have them implying that if I’m not ready to gain weight I’m not ready to have a child . . . You don’t know me, you don’t know my medical history.

You’re Whoopi Goldberg! You were in Sister Act.

[Laughs] Yes, yes. I’ve been trying for a year – do you think if I’ve been trying for a year I’m not committed to gaining weight or taking hormone shots? I’ve been doing it all! It’s not working.

Has that intrusive sort of judgment increased since you’ve made the transition from E! host to the reality show increased?

Yeah, definitely. I mean, people come up to you and they feel like they can say whatever they want to. But we’ve opened ourselves to that, we’ve let that in. Working in the business and interviewing celebrities for a living, I’ll be the last person to ever complain. Because I hate when celebrities say “I didn’t sign up for this.” Yes you did! When you’re on tv or in a movie, you’re gonna have people who want to know about your life, you know what I mean? And to not give them that, to not share your life, you’re not playing the game. If people want to know my beauty secrets, my diet secrets, that I’m having problems having a baby, what I’m doing to have a baby, I just feel like I’m fair game. I’m in this business. And if I want privacy, I’ll get out of the business.

People do come up to me all the time. We were flying in last night from LA and a woman pulls me aside and she’s like, “I have a feeling, I can feel it, you’re going to get pregnant." It’s very sweet. Oh my lord, she was predicting whether I’ll have a boy or girl. It’s okay.

And now, in a way, some people consider you the face of trying to get pregnant.

It's true. We’ve definitely been getting more attention because of that. If we can help people, it’s good.

Any exciting episodes of Bill and Giuliana coming up? The 2nd season’s about to start with "The Rancic challenge" Bill's extreme physical competition.

Yes, we premiere on E! this Monday night, so it’s very exciting. The Rancic Challenge is probably going to take all our friends away, we play it with our friends.

I imagine after the apprentice, Bill is good at brutal competition. . .

Oh, it gets very ugly. It does! That’s what it is every year

Giuliana and Bill in promo shots for the reality show.

At least it's still better than old-school Fear Factor.

Thank God.

Is it hard to toggle between that reality show life and your presenter persona?

Not really. This is who I always was. Hosting, I never really had an outlet to do anything, to show my personality. So this has been really fun. People warned me, like, Don’t do it. People were like, “You’ll ruin your credibility.” And I was like, “I report on Britney Spears,” I mean really, come on. I don’t take myself that seriously. And I think that’s the key to making it in Hollywood: you cannot take yourself too seriously. If you have an ego, you’re gonna have problems. Remember it’s a business and it’s fun. Lighten up! You get to work with great people.

And give Britney Spears constant fist-bumps.

Absolutely.

One unrelated but really important wrap-up question: You were born in Naples Italy. As an Italian-American, how do you feel about those pesky Jersey Shore kids?

I do not like the Jersey Shore kids. (And when I say that I obviously don’t mean people from the Jersey Shore.) And Snooki! No one names their daughter Snooki! The kids aren't representative of Italy. Yeah, these people aren’t real Italians, and I definitely think they give Italians a bad name.